WCPW celebrates their one-year anniversary by having, for the first time ever, all of their titles defended in one night. It’s WCPW Built To Destroy!

WHAT CULTURE PRO WRESTLING
BUILT TO DESTROY
June 16, 2017 (AIRED JUNE 17)
O2 ACADEMY
NEWCASTLE, ENGLAND

Watch: What Culture Extra

Dave Bradshaw and James R. Kennedy recap the incident at Fight Back between Sha Samuels and Prince Ameen that brought about tonight’s Internet Title match.

WCPW INTERNET CHAMPIONSHIP
GABRIEL KIDD DEF. SHA SAMUELS

Kidd won the title at the No Regrets show in April. This was his fourth defense of the title. This was a hot little opener. I’ve sung the praises of Gabriel Kidd before, and Sha has a knack for making people dislike him. The in-ring was fine, and the crowd was firmly behind Kidd. Kidd got the win, but this time, he won decisively with a Sick Kick. After the match, Kidd’s friend Prince Ameen teased turning on him and making Kidd his servant again before putting Kidd over and presenting him with his own music. Perfect opening segment. ***

Pro Wrestling World Cup First Round
KENNY WILLIAMS DEF. BT GUNN

The winner of this match will take Drew Galloway’s spot in the Pro Wrestling World Cup Finals in August. This match was unmemorable, but inoffensive. I’ve only seen a handful of matches from both these guys, but they both looked fairly good here. Gunn has really sharp kicks and chops, while Williams has a lot of charisma. Williams gets the win with a round-the-world DDT. I thought Gunn would win due to his part in the Prestige, but Williams winning is a pleasant surprise. **1/2

POLO PROMOTIONS DEF. JOHNNY MOSS AND LIAM SLATER

Another decent match here. The Polos worked over Slater before Moss tagged in. Slater and Moss are very good in their respective roles in the team. I wish I had more to say about this one, but it was another one that really didn’t leave much of an impression on me. The Polos won with a very cool double team German suplex.  **1/2

WCPW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
KAY LEE RAY DEF. VIPER

Kay Lee Ray beat Viper at Fight Back to earn a women’s title shot against Bea Priestley. Priestley got hurt before this show, so she tried to back out of it. WCPW GM Adam Blampied came out and said that Viper would sub in for her with the title still on the line.

There wasn’t much of a match here. Viper took control, but Priestley kept screwing up her interference. Ray got a nearfall with a Gory Bomb. Priestley accidentally hit Viper with a crutch, and Ray rolled her up for the win and the title. Post match, Viper teased turning on Priestley before helping her out of the ring. Ray should be a good champion, but this wasn’t the hottest of starts for her title reign. *1/2

MOOSE DEF. JOE COFFEY

Moose was a mystery opponent picked by WCPW GM Adam Blampied. This was two big bastards trying to knock the other one down and out. I’ve been down on Coffey lately in WCPW, but he brought his A-game here. This match really picked up when Coffey powerbombed Moose into the front row, then did an Okada dive over the barricade onto Moose. Then these two got back in the ring and just battered each other. There were several false finishes that had me convinced it was over. There was a part toward the end where the guys kicked out at one on each other that didn’t get the reaction I think they wanted, and that took some steam out of the ending stretch, but on the whole this was a really good hoss fight. Moose won with three big lariats. ***3/4

JAY LETHAL DEF. DAVEY RICHARDS

This was another good match, but this one lacked an intensity that could’ve brought it to the next level. The work was solid, as you would expect from Lethal and Richards. It just felt like they were holding back for whatever reason. Richards had an ankle lock on, but Lethal rolled through. Richards kicked out of a roll-up but got caught with a Lethal Injection, getting Lethal the win. Post match, Drake attacked Lethal, mirroring last year’s Built To Destroy. This time, Lethal was able to hit Drake with a Lethal Injection to send him away. The match wasn’t bad or skippable by any means, it just wasn’t as good as it looked on paper. ***

WCPW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
SWORDS OF ESSEX (Ospreay & Wainwright) DEF. PROSPECT

Prospect earned this title shot by winning the tag team gauntlet match at Fight Back. No matter the outcome of this match, Lucas Archer was going on a hiatus from wrestling after this show to rehab a knee injury. I really liked this match. They did a Dusty Finish where it looked like Prospect won, but Wainwright’s foot was under the rope. The spot probably would have worked better if it wasn’t a minute into the match, but it was only a minor annoyance. After that, this was a very solid tag match that really built in drama toward the end. The Swords kept working over Archer’s knee with single leg crabs and Texas cloverleafs, really simple things to work over the knee. Gracie got the hot tag and came in a house of fire. He almost got the win with a scary reverse Tombstone on Ospreay. The Swords get the advantage back though, but neither Gracie or Archer could be kept down for three. Archer hits a really bad Worm that almost gets the win, but Ospreay breaks up the pin.

Ospreay tries to do the Eddie Guerrero spot where he pretends Archer hit him with the title belt, even though the Swords had the upper hand. Just before the ref calls for the bell though, he sees Ospreay screwing around and doesn’t ring the bell. Prospect hit their move, but the pin gets broken up. Wainwright hits Archer’s leg with a chair (that the camera misses), and Ospreay puts on a modified sharpshooter for the win. The work wasn’t spectacular, but the crowd was into it and they did a really good job bringing the match to a crescendo at the right time. ***1/2

Post match, Prospect get a standing ovation. They get to the top of the stage before Gracie lays Archer out with a Killswitch. Gracie was the better member of Prospect, but I don’t think he’ll be lighting the world up on his own.

WCPW HARDCORE CHAMPIONSHIP
PRIMATE DEF. JIMMY HAVOC

Havoc was fresh off of winning Tournament of Death, so his back is six shades of scarred up. Either his back was bleeding before the bell rung, or that’s just a big cut on his back. You know what you’re getting here, they bust each other open two minutes into the match. James R. Kennedy gets involved for no reason, so Primate puts his head in a cake. The announcers go on about Kennedy having cake on him rather than the two men bleeding in the ring, so that’s ‘good’. Primate put Havoc through two tables, a chair, and a barbed wire-covered ironing board for the win. This was the best of Primate’s recent hardcore matches, which is unsurprising considering Jimmy Havoc is involved. If you are into bloody hardcore matches, you may get more out of this than I did. I still thought it was pretty good. ***

Backstage, WCPW GM Adam Blampied reminds Martin Kirby about his Magnificent Seven title shot that he earned before winning the WCPW Title last month. It’s a Money in the Bank type deal, briefcase and all. I completely forgot that Kirby even had that title shot. Hmm, I wonder if that will come up later.

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN Briefcase
EL LIGERO DEF. MARTIN KIRBY

Oh. Before the match, Joe Hendry came out with Ligero and said that if Kirby didn’t agree to put his title shot on the line, Ligero wouldn’t wrestle him. Kirby agreed, and they proceeded to have a solid **1/2 deal going. Ligero went for a low blow, but Kirby caught him and laid him out with a half-and-half suplex. Kirby went for the Zoidberg Elbow when a “photographer” got in the ring. Ligero got the low blow while the ref was dealing with that. C4L lands, and Ligero wins the briefcase. The photographer gets in the ring, and it is…Stevie Aaron, the ring announcer. The ring announcer turned heel and joined The Prestige.

Two and a half star match, dud finish. *1/2

WCPW CHAMPIONSHIP
JOE HENDRY DEF. RAMPAGE

Before the match, the Prestige attacked Rampage because they wouldn’t be able to be at ringside once the bell rang. The match started and Rampage quickly took control. It didn’t go long before BT Gunn, WHO WAS BANNED FROM RINGSIDE, showed up. Rampage booted him down and hit Hendry with a piledriver, but Gunn pulled the ref out. Joe Coffey, WHO WAS ALSO BANNED FROM RINGSIDE, showed up and laid out Rampage with a lariat. Hendry hit the Freak of Nature fallaway slam, but that only got 2. Soon after, the ref got bumped, and El Ligero WHO WAS BANNED FROM RINGSIDE came in with his briefcase. Hendry ended up laying out Rampage with the briefcase, and put on an ankle lock to win.

The Prestige has been around for a couple months. I have already gotten Suzuki-gun levels of annoyed with them. Fuck this match, and fuck this group. 1/2*

FINAL THOUGHTS:

There were several matches on this card that I would recommend to watch. Kidd/Samuels, Swords of Essex/Prospect, and Lethal/Richards were decent, and Moose/Coffey was stellar. I can’t say that this entire show was bad. But the last 45 minutes of this show were a goddamn dumpster fire. Between the ring announcer turning heel, stipulations that were completely disregarded, and wrestling that was average as hell, the end of this show left me in a worse mood than when I started it. And when push comes to shove, I cannot recommend a show that leaves me like that.